1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to methods for manually counting pills or similarly shaped objects and to apparatus adapted for use with said methods.
2. Related Art
In medical and related fields, for example, it is a commonplace task to remove pills from a container in order to fill a prescription. Typically, this is done by removing from the container a number of pills that clearly exceeds the need, counting and separating from this number the number actually needed, returning the excess to the container, and depositing the prescribed number of pills in a container suitable for dispensation to the patient or agent thereof. This tedious task is performed several times each day by thousands of people whose time would be better spent exercising the special skills and knowledge they have acquired. For example, it is not unusual for a doctor of veterinary medicine to spend several hours per week on this task. A more familiar and extreme example is the pharmacist. Although modern technology presents a number of possible methods for performing this task by automatic means, complications including cost and non-uniformity of pill size and shape have apparently precluded the commercialization of these methods, so that the task is still performed manually.
Perhaps the most familiar apparatus for performing the task is that illustrated in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings and designated generally by the numeral 2. Another known apparatus is that illustrated in FIG. 2 and designated generally by the numeral 4. In using the apparatus 2, a supply of pills (contained in a bottle or other pill reservoir provided by the manufacturer) is poured onto a counting surface 6. Most of the counting surface 6 is surrounded by stop means including walls 8, lips 9, or inclines 10 to assist in preventing the pills from sliding off the counting surface. Using a knife or similar device, the user counts from the supply of pills poured onto the counting surface 6 and separates from the excess the number of pills required by the prescription. The prescribed number of pills are then pushed into a dispensing chute 12, leaving the excess on the counting surface 6. A hinged, door-like component 14 is then closed to form a funnelled chamber from which pills can only escape through a funnel opening 16. The user then tilts the device 2 in a direction such that the pills remaining on the counting surface 6 depart therefrom via an opening 18 in the stop means, while the pills in the dispensing chute slide along the chute and away from the funnel opening 16, positioning the device and the pill reservoir with respect to each other so that the excess is returned to the reservoir via the opening 18. The user than tilts the device 2 in a direction such that the pills remaining in the dispensing chute 12 slide along the chute and through the funnel opening 16 while positioning the device with respect to a bottle or other receptacle so that the pills are delivered into the receptacle.
From the standpoint of time consumption, the predominant element of the above-described procedure is the act of counting the number of pills required by the prescription. However, the apparatus 2 is also inefficient in comparison with the apparatus and methods of the present invention in that it requires extraneous operations such as opening and closing the door-like component 14.
The pill counting apparatus 4 of FIG. 2 has an advantage over the apparatus 2 of FIG. 1 in that it requires considerably less time to count larger numbers of pills. The apparatus 4 takes advantage of the fact that the most compact arrangement for packing objects of circular cross-section is a hexagonal close-packed configuration in which a centrally located pill 20 is surrounded by and in contact with six other pills 22 (FIG. 4). By pouring pills onto the counting surface 6 and jiggling the apparatus 4 with the vertex 32 in a relatively low position, the pills will automatically arrange themselves in a hexagonal close-packed structure confined by a sixty-degree, V-shaped stop 34 which defines two sides of the counting surface. The user can then simply count the number of rows which yields a corresponding number of pills close to the required number, separate and remove any excess, and be left with the number of pills required by the prescription. A table 36 is typically provided to facilitate counting.
Although the apparatus 4 is more efficient than that of FIG. 1 when counting larger numbers of pills, it is relatively cumbersome once the act of counting is completed and the acts of dispensing the excess pills to the supply resorvoir and the prescribed number of pills to a suitable container begin. Without using some external means, the process of dispensing either the prescribed number of pills or the excess into a container while keeping the remaining pills on the counting surface 6, and then dispensing the remaining pills into another container, is necessarily inefficient in comparison with the methods and apparatus provided by the instant invention.
An objective of the present invention is to substantially reduce the time spent in counting and/or dispensing pills or similarly-shaped objects.
Another objective of the invention is to provide apparatus for manually counting pills or similarly-shaped objects, whereby the apparatus is both easy to use and capable of being manufactured in large quantities at low cost.
Other objectives and advantages provided by the invention will be apparent from the following description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings.